License renewal rule easing

Many immigrants have had to travel far to renew drivers' licenses at a designated office. That will change June 1.

By ALISA ULFERTS, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 22, 2002

Hector Estrada spent most of his third wedding anniversary standing in line at the Pinellas Park driver's license office, trying to help his Mexican wife renew her license.

Also in line that January day were a Bosnian family, a young Vietnamese woman and countless other Pinellas County immigrants forced to renew at that office until more state workers could be trained to spot fake immigration documents.

But those restrictions, a reaction to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, will be lifted beginning June 1, state officials announced Tuesday.

In 62 counties, foreigners could go to any of the driver's license bureaus to make those changes. But Pinellas and Hillsborough, and three other Florida counties, have so many noncitizens that the state restricted where they could go. That gave Florida time to train state workers in the finer points of immigration fraud detection.

And it has worked so far, said Fred Dickinson, director of the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Workers are finding more fake immigration papers at the driver's license offices, although Dickinson credits better training, not more fraud, for the increase.

"We've gotten more proficient at examining those documents," Dickinson told Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Cabinet Tuesday.

The new rules governing noncitizens, including the designation of specific offices to handle their needs, were effective Dec. 13 and intended to make it harder for potential terrorists to get identification.

But some of those new rules inconvenienced law-abiding residents, said Ed Quinones, chairman of UNO, a Clearwater based Hispanic advocacy group. Quinones said the restrictions were hard for those working far from a designated driver's license office.

"I would say it was a step in the right direction for our foreign nationals and friends," Quinones said of the state's decision to expand access for noncitizens to all driver's license offices.

State officials tightened their license and identification requirements for foreigners after learning that 13 of the 19 terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 attacks had Florida ID cards or drivers' licenses.

The documents needed to obtain a license didn't change. But if any of the estimated 2.8-million drivers who are not citizens attempt to renew, change an address or clear up a problem, they must produce those documents.

And if they don't have them, they risk losing their license or identification card until they produce them.

Estrada's wife was issued a 30-day driving permit and copies of her documents were sent to Tallahassee to be checked against outstanding warrants with the National Law Enforcement Tracking System.

Once such checks have been made, she and other noncitizens will get a regular license. Its expiration date will coincide with the expiration date on their permanent resident card or other type of visa.

That was a change Bush said he liked.

"What we have done, which makes total sense, is no longer after their visa expires will their license" be valid, Bush said Tuesday.

-- Times staff writer Alicia Caldwell and researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

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